Business For Sale: Family Pastimes Co-operative Games

Retiring Doukhobor seeks new owner to continue his family business of crafting cooperative board games about peace, health and ecology

Jim and Ruth Deacove

‘It’s time to retire’, says Jim Deacove. ‘’We haven’t widely advertised that Ruth and I are stepping down after 50 years of the co-operative game business, but word is getting round and a variety of offers are coming our way. The Sales Prospectus summarizes our offer. Some folks just want the portfolio of Intellectual Property.

‘Some want to move the business to another city. Some want to buy everything: the 100 acre farm, our house, the business. In the meantime it is a joy to come to the shop every day, read and answer the mail, fill the orders, make some more games in small batches. Just like the meaningful hobby that was started long ago, a social mission disguised as a business. Maybe 'Small is Beautiful' after all. Could be a perfect fit for a retired couple for a meaningful hobby.’

For details download the Family Pastimes Sale Prospectus. (PDF)

Contact: Familypastimes.com — Phone: 613-267- 4819.

               Family Pastimes, RR 4, Station Main, 796 Brooke Valley Road,
               Perth, Ontario, Canada K7H 3C6

Perth is 83 kilometres (52 mi) southwest of Ottawa.

Sale Prospectus summary:

1. Registered trademark for next 12 years.
2. No debt.
3. Equipment — $222,000
4. Finished goods — $95,000.
5. Materials — $150,000.
6. Intellectual property of every game, the artwork for labels, game faces, card parts, available at 10% royalty to Jim Deacove, annually on Gross Revenue.
7. Books, like Co-operative Parlor Games (30 games, 36 pages)
8. Rental use of all buildings: main shop, woodwork cottage, storage cottage, two 53-foot trailers for storage.
9. Customer base from 50 years in business grew to $500,000 before the depression of 2008; since then, averaging $125,000 annually. Except during the Covid-19 period.
10. Affiliates in the USA, Australia, and Europe.

More

1. ‘Jim Passing the Family Pastimes Torch: an interview with Jim and Ruth Deacove’, The Humm (Arts, Entertainment & Ideas in the Ottawa Valley), October 19, 2021.
2. ‘Vaccine’ for a ‘Competitive Virus’, by Jim Deacove. Spirit Wrestlers, April 20, 2021.
3. ‘Cooperative games? Are you serious? A remarkable Canadian success story.’ By Jim Deacove, as retold to Koozma J. Tarasoff. In 150 Canadian Stories of Peace. An Anthology (2017), compiled by Gordon Breedyk, Mony Dojeiji, Koozma J. Tarasoff and Evelyn Voigt. Pages 265-266.
4. ‘Why I Wrote My Book on Spirit Wrestlers / Doukhobors?’, October 31, 2014. — Includes an illustrated feature on Jim Deacove.
5. ‘Film review: Krishnamurti’s Search for Truth.’ Film hosted by Jim Deacove, Cooperative Family Pastimes, Spirit Wrestlers website August 30, 2011.
6. ‘A Remarkable Evening With Cooperative Pioneers, Jim and Ruth Deacove’, Spirit Wrestlers January 22, 2011.
7. ‘Co-operative Games and the Inventor Jim Deacove’, August 6, 2008. — A full biography.
8. ‘Deacove farm (Perth, Ontario) Ploughshares board game.’ Hodge-Podge section of Spirit Wrestlers website July 23, 2006.
9. ‘Spirit of Co-operation in a Competitive Society’ (PDF), Spirit Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers’ Strategies for Living, by Koozma J. Tarasoff (2002): pages 236-241.
10. ‘Spirit of Co-operation in a Competitive Society’ (PDF, 5.6 Mb), by Jim Deacove, in Spirit Wrestlers' Voices: Honouring Doukhobors on the Centenary of their migration to Canada, compiled and edited by Koozma J. Tarasoff (1999): pages 183-197.
11. Jim Deacove, Board Game Designer, Board Game Geek.
12. A Valley Gamemaker, by Mary Cooke, 2009, Seniors Young At Heart, Ever Learning.
13. Jim Deacove, Author, Titles, Amazon.com.
14. 5 Questions with Board Game Designer Jim Deacove, PuzzleNation, July 17, 2014.
15. Family Pastimes - Jim Deacove, The Games Journal, November 2000.
16. Does Your Family Play Cooperative Games? Cooperative Games Family Pastimes, by Melissa Taylor.
17. Meet Jim and Ruth Deacove in Canada, Facebook, February 3, 2012.
18. Buddy the frog goes to Family Pastimes cooperative games!, video by Juan Uribe, Sep 14, 2009.
19. Co-operative Games, podcast interview by Sandy Goldman, Each for All, September 11, 2018.
20. Hope, Peace and Play: An Interview With Jim Deacove of Family Pastimes, Fair Play Games.
21. Jim Deacove (Family Pastimes Cooperative Games), Friday Special Blend, with Chris White, CKCU FM 93.1 Radio, August 14, 2020.
22. Local Cooperative Game Company Goes Digital, The Humm, March 2015 (PDF, 22MB), page 8.

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Passing the Family Pastimes Torch: an interview with Jim and Ruth Deacove 

by Kris Riendeau, Editor & Publisher, The Humm, October 19, 2021.

When the world seems to be changing incredibly quickly, it’s good to know that some things are made to last. In the case of Family Pastimes, those things come in colourful boxes and contain imaginative and cooperative games! Owners Jim and Ruth Deacove have been running this delightful business in Brooke Valley for 50 years and are now well into their eighties. I have fond memories of playing such games as “Sleeping Grump” and “Max the Cat” with my own kids (who are now aged 27 and 30), so when I heard that the Deacoves were getting ready to sell this established business, I contacted them for more details. 

theHumm: Congratulations on 50 years in business! What first inspired you to create cooperative games, and how did you turn that passion into a business? 

When our girls first started playing games, they were always squabbling and first we questioned our parenting methods until we realized that the structure of the games caused the conflicts. After all, the point of the game was to beat each other. We looked around Ottawa game stores and couldn’t find any games that nurtured the family values we promoted, share toys, help one another, be kind to pets, find peaceful ways to settle problems, aso. Nada. So, necessity being the mother of invention, we started inventing them. Played our creations at birthday parties. Folks asked where they could buy them. Ergo, a cottage industry was born. 

Although the world has changed rather significantly over the past half-century, Family Pastimes has stayed true to the cooperative game model. What have been some of the biggest changes in your games and the way you market and sell them? 

With new equipment, we made our handcrafted versions look more professional. The basic rule of thumb for my designs has always remained, Play Together. That is, I don’t have people against people. What has evolved is that early on, I marketed the games as Everyone Wins or Everyone Loses. My thinking has evolved away from this rather competitive Win/Lose paradigm to How well did we all do? Now we measure the degree of success and there is no losing involved. Didn’t get all of our carrots harvested before winter arrived? How many did we get in? We started out selling at craft sales, then to retail stores, and now we sell on our website www.familypastimes.com 

Why do you think it’s still important to offer kids (of all ages) cooperative, hands-on games to play?

What skills are fostered by playing Family Pastimes games that perhaps aren’t addressed by electronic toys and video games? The list is long from conducive to better health and liking one another; teamwork, shared decision making, openness, trust and safety, self worth and personal power, less aggressive behaviour, emotional maturity…all the myths about competition are dispelled. Cultural conditioning trains us to confuse success with trying to beat others. All games require overcoming some obstacle, but nowhere is it written that the obstacle must be other people. 

I understand that you are hoping to sell the business to someone new who can run it for the next 50 years. What kind of abilities and expertise would make someone a good match for this business?

Having a kind heart is essential. Family Pastimes is very much a social mission disguised as a business. As the business grew internationally, took on a fair-sized work force, the help of local business experts were necessary. Currently, Covid has made us small again and, to be honest, while we have been big and whoever takes on Family Pastimes again may choose to go big, they may realize what we are feeling now and that is that small is beautiful. 

Ruth and I are keeping the business almost at the level it was when we began 50 years ago, as a meaningful hobby. Digital printing, cutting and assembling parts, gluing game boards and boxes and so on are easily learned. It is a little more complicated preparing invoices and labeling cartons, because this is done by internet these days, but that also is easily learned. There are two, if not more, ways the hand-over could take place. A young couple with the technical skills in place could take over. But, also I picture a recently retired couple who are looking for a meaningful hobby would also be a perfect fit. In any case, interested folks can contact me at info@familypastimes.com and I will send them a detailed Sales Prospectus.

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Update:   As of July 2026, this business has not been sold. 

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Petrofka Ferry

Saskatchewan boyhood memories by Nick Troubetzkoy

 

Never before published tales of Doukhobor rural life in the 1940s — family farm, banya, baseball field, uncle John's general store and petro station, brick making, folklore, river, water hand pump, electricity, vodka still, cows, fishing, chickens, berries, outhouse, ice skating, ... 

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For a kid there was an exciting grab bag of things to see and do along the North Saskatchewan River near Petrofka and on the ferry crossing the river, and on the farm, which was Uncle John's farm.

Orange markers show locations added to map: 'Blaine Lake and Langham, 
SK Doukhobor Settlement, 1899-1932', by Jonathan Kalmakoff.
Green insert map shows location of Petrofka north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Uncle John had kids, Phil, Donnie and Sonia, and his wife was Mabel. They all lived together in a farmhouse with my grandmother and grandfather on my mom's side (the Gulioffs).

Uncle John, my mom Lucy, Uncle Eli, Uncle Jim and Auntie Fannie, were all brothers and sisters.  There were five of them and they all lived around the great river and near John’s farm at that time. 

The farm was the first place you would hit when you crossed the river on the ferry and reached the shore on the other side.

Just drive a city block along the old dirt road from the ferry landing pad and there you are at a big flat area where Uncle John had put in a baseball field and where people from the entire area would come and play baseball.

Example.

Uncle John sold two types of gas and diesel and K-oil [kerosene] there outside of his local general store just by the ball field, with four grand old mechanical pumps outside. You had to pump fuel into the tall glass cylinders at the top of these pumps by hand and keep them topped up ready for action.

Us kids were given the task of keeping the glass cylinders on top of these tall gas pump housings full, by pushing and pulling the long wooden handles back and forth that were at the bottom of each the pump housing.  Why a hand pump?  Well of course this was because we did not have any electricity anywhere in the region.

When you looked up you would see a small amount of gas squirting and spilling into the tall glass cylinder with every stroke of the pump handle.  

The glass cylinder was really like a giant measuring cup with marks at every gallon, half gallon and quarter gallon.  If you wanted gas you would just pour it into your car’s gas tank with the gas hose and nozzle from the pump.  For example, if you wanted two gallons of gas, you would check to see that the cylinder was full and then you would pour two gallons into your car and you would physically see the gas dropping downward two gallons in the glass cylinder.  Fun to watch, and hypnotic for a kid. 

The gallon level marks in the cylinder were half an inch wide so you could have a good argument about whether you were measuring the gas from the top of the mark or the bottom of the mark. A favourite threat which was shouted at the skinny kid attendants by the burly farmers was 'Hey kid are you sure the gas was at the top of the mark before you started?'  One half an inch of gas in the glass cylinder was a meaningful amount of gas back in those days

The reason there were two gas pumps was not for regular or premium gas, but for regular gas and farm gas.  That’s why the gas in the pumps was of two very distinct colours.  Purple for farm gas and orange for the regular gas. If you were a farmer, you would get your gas tax free which meant at a very considerable savings. But if you weren't a farmer, you would have to pay for gas with the government tax added onto the price.  A big price jump.  Right there you had the purple gas, the orange gas and temptation.

If you put purple farm gas into your car and you weren’t a farmer, you could be heavily fined because if RCMP would stop you, they would take a syringe, plunge it into your gas tank, pull it out and say, 'You sir are a criminal, you have put farm gas in this here car, mister and you are therefore not paying the provincial Saskatchewan Gas Tax which is a serious offence.  Consequently sir, we're going to fine you, or put you in jail, or lock up your car, or take it away from you.  Mister, you are in a big bit of trouble. '

If our family didn't have a car because sometimes we were too poor to have a car, we'd catch a ride with people who were going in the direction of Blaine Lake and the farm.  Then we would be dropped off and stay in Uncle John's housing complex, which was really just a bunch of dirt buildings. The walls of the house and the other buildings were all made from mud.  Made up of a mix of dirt, clay, straw, cow dung, horse dung, and water which was shovelled into wooden forms which were left in the sun to dry and become building bricks.  The bricks were made by mixing this dirt formula in a grave shaped ditch dug in the ground into which you dumped all the forgoing ingredients and added water and women with bare feet to mush everything into a muddy dirt mixture just like kneading bread dough and then dumping the dirt dough into the forms to dry in the sun thereby creating mud bricks for constructing walls.

These architectural wonder houses were very, very primitive, very tiny and with only one wood burning stove in the middle of the house. Separate interior spaces were defined by woven willow tree branch privacy walls and the roofs were of woven straw placed over small willow tree trunks.

Behind the main house was a separate building which in Russian was called the banya.  The word banya translates as bath house which is the place where everyone would go to have their Saturday bath. The banya consisted of two rooms, one room which was a dressing room area where everyone would take of all of their clothes and hang them on hooks all around the room, and it also was the location of the front of a wooden stove made from oil drums with a door for loading wood into the stove and with its chimney in the dressing room to carry the smoke away.

Banya example

The oil drum stove protruded a long way into the banya and was completely clad all over in river stones which would get almost white hot from the wood burning in the stove under the stones.  On top of the stone clad stove sat a huge tub of water with a wooden ladle floating in the tub.

They call it a banya and I don’t know how to differentiate it from a sauna [Finnish], but it was hot dry, dry heat. That is, it was dry, dry, heat until somebody would surreptitiously approach the hot rock stove, take the ladle from the water tub, fill the ladle full of water and throw the water onto the red hot rocks.  This would result in an explosive blast of steam that was so hot it became invisible immediately.  If the ladle holder was one of the old troublesome grandfathers, then they would dip and blast and dip and blast repetitively until every one in the banya was shouting stop you durak, which in Russian translates to 'you idiot'.

The more steam created, the more foggy it ultimately became in the banya until you could not see anyone at all.  The banya benches were stacked in different levels rising from the front to the back where the back benches were just a few feet below the ceiling. This is where the highest heat was and where the old timers hung out in the hottest of hot heat. The lowest benches were about two feet above the floor and every layer going back from there would be about 18 inches higher.  The benches were about two feet wide and ran from side wall to side wall of the banya so that several people could lie flat out on each of them. 

On the wooden floor was the coolest level and that’s where the kids wrestled and played with everyone shouting at them all the time, watch the stove, watch the stove which was in the front of the banya in the central place of honour.

This was an every Saturday communal event with sometimes even relatives and neighbours coming over.  There were thin young willow branches with the leaves still on them lying everywhere that people would flog themselves with because it would stimulate your skin and also could make young women more fertile according to Slavic legend.

Willow, don't forget, is the source of acetyl-salicylic acid [aspirin] and grew in abundance all along the river.  It is a great stimulator and rejuvenator of the skin.  I think that it is in very expensive women's beauty products — which also come from the natural source called aspirin.

Of course, if there was snow outside, then if you had the nerve, you would rush outside and lie in the snow completely naked and make snow angels, screeching at the top of your lungs, burning with both cold and heat and then rushing back in to the banya and then whipping yourself with willow branches again and again.  With that, everybody was positively glowing and laughing hysterically.  Unless some undisciplined giggling brat locked the entry door and you could not get your naked body back into the banya.

Was there any drinking taking place?  Well the kids didn't know about it or if it was happening.  But those uncles, don’t forget those uncles had stills all over the place. Well why not? They were growing wheat and of course they'd without a doubt have stills and make their own vodka. 

Everybody would have a little bottle hidden away somewhere and of course Uncle Jim the vodka maestro had several stills on his farm hidden away in the bushes and behind rock piles.  Making vodka out of wheat is so easy to do and a still is not complicated. 

Little nips of vodka were available for everyone, little nibbles of vodka here and there through out Saturday night, which would go on and on.  In the meanwhile back at the ferry there was often a minor crime scene going on of course and people running away from the police every which way.

With all this booze floating around, you would have these ferry situations where the cops seemed to be always chasing after somebody but not always catching them.  The bad guys might cross on the ferry ahead of the cops and the cops would be left behind stuck on the wrong side of the river blowing their horn at the ferry and the infamous people who were driving off with nobody going to stop them until they were long gone on the other shoreline. 

The other thing about the North Saskatchewan River, is that it was lined with berries, 'Saskatoon berries'.  There were endless trees and trees and trees and you would be sent out with baskets to pick Saskatoon berries, buckets and buckets of Saskatoon berries.  They were really way better than any other blueberry.  Enough berries to eat and to make pies and jams and jellies.

The cows would have been let loose in the morning and would go wandering all along the river, and at the end of the day towards dusk, the kids would have to go out looking for the cows and round them up using willow switches to whip them on their butts so they’d shuffle back to the barn and get milked. 

Uncle John's store was always full of people, really full and he would have big pickle barrels, a 45-gallon wooden barrel with pickles in them that you’d stick a big pickle fork into and pull out pickles and there were barrels and barrels of peanuts and many more other treats to dig into.  That general store was such a very nice place to hang out in, full of people all the time all gossiping and having a great friendly social  experience.

There was a stream running through the property behind the store and behind the house, running completely right through the length of the farm.  I don't know what the source of the creek was, because this was prairie land, so it must have been a spring with the source higher up in the hills.  But it ran right through the farm, past the house, and right past the store. 

Because the creek was running into the North Saskatchewan River, being practical farm people, the family did block up the stream at a certain point near the house and created a big pond. That's where they would keep live sturgeon that they would catch from the North Saskatchewan.  They would catch live sturgeon and keep them fresh and alive for a long time in that pond and would sell the fish and caviar to passing people for ten cents a pound.

Don't forget that the sturgeon fish and its caviar were just the most common thing living in the pond  and if you liked caviar you could  just eat it by the handful if you wanted to.  But this caviar in our pond was not like the caviar you buy in a glass jar in a big city gourmet store which has salt added to it, because that glass jar, rich people caviar, is really very salty.  Fresh caviar from our river sturgeon didn’t have that salty chemical taste, it had a clean, fresh from the fish, fresh from the river flavour.

Whenever the sturgeon was killed, the kids would gather around for the exploding of the fish swim bladders that were smashed with a hammer and would explode sounding like a gunshot. 

Uncle John had built out a twin bay outhouse on top of the stream, but down stream a bit from the pond and away from other idyllic surroundings so all of those special areas would remain fresh, pure and park like and clean.  So this outlying loo [lavatory] was further away, but was where everybody went to the bathroom.

It was down hill a bit and away, down past the sturgeons and so everybody would use that outhouse to go and have a poo and if you were a kid, you would do whatever it is downstream from the outhouse and have what I called the outhouse poo races.  It was literally an outhouse built over the stream and as a kid, why would you not be interested in the outfall and having races between the turds?  This would cause the adults to go nuts if they saw the kids downstream poking at mysterious objects in the creek water and shrieking.

Of course, there were lots of chickens everywhere, and so if you have chickens you eat their eggs for as long as they produce them, but then when eggs come no more, you have to kill them and eat them.  Of course if you want to eat them, you have to catch them. This was kids work.  Imagine four kids running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to catch four chickens for that weekend’s large family gathering.

After the kids caught the chickens their favourite harassment was to gather around and try to convince the axe man to chop the head off a chicken and then let the chicken go so the chicken could run around like a chicken with his head cut for up to ninety seconds just going full blast with the head lying there on the chopping block and the running body spouting blood and the chicken just running and running, all over the yard, but running silently since the cock-a-doodle-doo part of the chicken was lying back there on the chopping block.  Now imagine four chickens that we kids caught all running around at the same time with four mute heads on the chopping block.

K-oil lamp

It was at this point when the chicken fell over sideways, that we would take off like rocket ships so that we did not get stopped and recruited as child chicken feather pluckers which was quite a difficult job and probably illegal. 

What a place, it was full of stuff to do, and in the winter, there were hills that we used to go sleigh riding on. And of course they would flood the flat baseball field and you could go skating there as it had turned into a big skating rink for everybody who wanted to be in and around there to meet up.

Oh yes by they way, no electricity anywhere and therefore no magical electric light bulbs.  It was all kerosene lamps all the way everywhere you go.  Not your benign flickering flame K-oil lamps, but the mean hissing lamps that you pump up to pressurize the K-oil tank to then create the fine spray that shoots onto and ignites the fragile carbon filament sack. A filament so fine that if you breath too hard on the filament it turns into ash before your very eyes. 

Replacing that filament in the dark if you can even find where they are hidden is one of life’s most difficult tasks.  Certainly subject to failure and the humiliation of your mother’s complimentary words 'chavo eta dyela, chorta dva durak' which as you know full-well means 'what is going on here, are two devils attacking you, you idiot?'  'Why is that filament not replaced yet.  We are the living blind in here.'

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About the author — see

Tarasoff, Koozma. J. 'A Jewel in St. Lucia, Organic architect Nick Troubetzkoy at work', 27 June 2014.

More about Petrofka area, Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. 

4 gods-within us — continued

For the past 6 years, 3 friends and myself occasionally meet for coffee in downtown Ottawa . We first met at local peace events and discovered we shared a common humanity of ‘the god-within’. We enjoyed meeting for coffee, and soon called ourselves the ‘4 gods-within’.

This is my third report about our meetings which began in December 2013.

We are: Bill, a retired political scientist, author and Gandhian fellow; Mony, MBA, author and television producer and her artist husband Alberto; and me.

On January 16 we began our 2019 meeting with a flood of new ideas heralding a new era of nonkilling, love and joy.

Koozma presented two ethical stories from Jon-Lee.

Story One was about a group of alumni who got together for a visit with their wise professor. When the conversation soon turned to complaints about endless stress of work and life, the professor offered his guests coffee. He returned from the kitchen with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: ‘porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite.’ Quietly he invited them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

As his former student had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering. ‘You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourself yet that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems.’

He continued. ‘Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups. Then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

‘Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money and position in society are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the life we live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee….’

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything. So please remember: Live Simply. Love Generously. Care Deeply .Speak Kindly.

And remember — the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

Story Two was about a 92-year-old wise man, whose wife just died. He was waiting patiently in the lobby of a nursing home, ready to move in himself. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, the nurse provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

‘I love it,’ he stated with enthusiasm.

‘Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’

‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied.

‘Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged....it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty

'I have with parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

‘Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away. Just for this time in my life.

‘Wise age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in.

‘So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.’

Remember the simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

We discussed 5 films

1. ‘The Good Place ’ is a fantasy comedy series on Netflix on common grounds of morals and ethics. It reminded me of my University of Saskatchewan days where I took a fascinating philosophy course on Morals and Ethics from the memorable Dr. Robert Paton.
2. ‘The Reluctant Saint ’ is a 1962 film about Joseph of Cupertino, a 17th-century Italian Franciscan friar and mystic, who did not seem to fit in anywhere, but found a solid place in society with simple actions of love.
3. ‘Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds ’ is a 5-part series on YouTube, which explores the inner and outer worlds via different philosophies. It provides us with a wider perspective in seeing ourselves as part of nature.
4. ‘Brother, Son, Sister, Moon’ is another classic film, an examination of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. This man spoke to the poor in France and other parts of Europe by denouncing the wealth of the Catholic Church, while rejecting many Catholic dogmas and doctrines, especially the need for ordained priesthood, and working towards a world without wars.
5. ‘Roma’ is a 2018 film about life of a housemaid in a Mexican neighbourhood Colonia Roma — highly recommended! It is said to be an antidote to our highly fast-paced Smartphone society. We need to stop, look and listen to life in our environment, and enjoy its existence.

We talked briefly about the Mondragon cooperatives in Spain, founded in 1956 by graduates of the local technical college. Its first product was paraffin heaters. By 2014, it employed 74,117 people in 257 companies and organizations in four business divisions: finance, industry, retail and knowledge. Today, they have over 100,000 members, all owners of their workplaces with votes in their businesses.

What is the essence of the god-within?

We ended with this question. Invoking ‘the higher God’ was creatively refrained towards the ‘inner god-within’ as a way to get to the core of humanity. Instead of invoking Jesus Christ, Buddha, Allah, etc., why don’t we simply invoke ourselves by our actions as showing the way of love, beauty, compassion, and nonkilling? Is that not the essence of truth into the mysterious realm of spirituality? After all, are we not real energy-driven instruments of these practical qualities that make us human?

The story of the Greek Gods and Godesses is history. Most people today would acknowledge that ancient story of divine and semi-divine figures as mythology and religion.

In the 21st century, can we now acknowledge that man is connected to divine energy? Can we now publicly proclaim ‘I am an instrument of love and compassion?’ Or ‘I am an instrument of peace?’ When congruent, our intent and our actions of the gods-within form the strategic map of reality as part of one common humanity of brothers and sisters in spirit. The old ethical maxim (‘Do unto others as you wish them to do onto you’) has been enriched. The traditional wisdom masters of the past (Jesus Christ, Buddha, Allah, Lev N. Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.) would be pleased.

500 Protest Bill C-51 in Ottawa

Over 500 people protested against Bill C-51 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2015.(1)

In freezing drizzle, hundreds gathered at noon in front of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s offices, chanted and staged speakers, then walked to the "Peace Tower" on Parliament Hill where they peacefully, but loudly proclaimed their defence of freedom, to reject fear and stop Harper’s Secret Police Bill.

Events included 10 speeches, chants, "Bill C-51 Song" by the Ottawa Raging Grannies,(9) and '"Three Traitors": a play for today' performed by The Quaker Theatre Team.(10,11,12) The rally ended at 2 pm.

This Ottawa Day of Action Against Bill C-51, organized by #StopC51, was one of 73 held across Canada.

Many who took photos and videos posted them online. Local news covered the event. See me with camera behind the lady in yellow holding the sign in The Ottawa Citizen; and see my 101 photo album and a shorter slide show in Google+ Story.(7) Also see 94 photos by Mike Gifford.(8) Dr. Qais Ghanem made a 50-minute video of the speakers and singers(9) and a 5-minute video of the Quaker Theatre Team.(11); but Jane Keeler posted her 5-minute video of the Quaker Theatre play(12) and a 2-minute video of the singing Ottawa Raging Grannies the same day.(10)

The proposed legislation is in the form of an Omnibus Bill which the Conservative government is rushing to push through without any amendments, so as to bolster its own support of this year’s federal election.

If passed, the Bill would give full access (without our knowledge or consent) to 17 federal departments and agencies about personal data of its citizens, publicly designed to identify and suppress security threats. These agencies include the RCMP and Canada’s two spy agencies, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Communications Security Establishment (CSE). But also it includes the Canada Revenue Agency, the departments of Citizenship and Immigration, Health and Transport.

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien has broader concerns about information sharing in the proposed legislation.

… Another bill, C-44, which is aimed at empowering CSIS, raises “fundamental questions for privacy,” he said, as well as U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s recent revelations about massive electronic surveillance operations.

“Is that the kind of society we want to live in, where ordinary Canadians, law-abiding individuals, are the subject of intrusive monitoring and profiling by national security agencies?” he asked. (2)

This dangerous piece of legislation opens the door to undermining the rule of law, human rights and democracy itself. It would be the first step in CSIS being turned into full secret police. The Bill threatens to stifle discussion on such issues as:

• Questioning the right of government to go to war. (Recall the Preamble to the UN Charter: 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war….').
• The right of government to expand its military efforts in the Middle East.
• The right of government to meddle in the Ukraine.
• Questioning army training for high school credits in Canada. (Army training for high school credit has first students, CBC News, Feb. 2, 2015.).
• Challenging the gun lobby. (Remember that kids brought up without fear of guns and vigilantism leads to healthy citizens.).
• Using the label of ‘terrorism’ as an excuse to arrest citizens without due process of law. This relates to the surveillance of environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and peace activists.
• Those grassroots activists who oppose the Alberta tar sands, the TransCanada pipeline and tanker projects as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trade Promotion Authority.
• Creating a Department of Peace in Canada.

Using the club of fear, the government claims that the state needs extra powers to counter radicalization and ISIS. However, the existing laws, many professionalists believe, are sufficient to deal with this threat in Canada. The real solution lies in prevention. In our foreign policy, we need to work for peace. We need to prevent soldiers from going abroad, being killed, injured and being affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In other words, the Prime Minister and the state ought to stop militarizing Canada and bring its troops home. Using those billions of dollars saved, Canadians can then deal with climate change and clean environment, income inequality, full free universal public health care and education, culture and sports programs accessible to all, good governance, and serious attention to upgrading public infrastructure across the country.

More

1. Campanella, Emanuela. 'Hundreds gather in front of PM's offices to protest anti-terror bill. The Ottawa Citizen, March 15, 2015.
2. Berthiaume, Lee. 'All Canadians would be trapped in anti-terror legislation's 'web', warns privacy commissioner.' The Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2015.
3. Nick Rose. ‘Some Kind of Monster: A Brief History of Harper’s Big Fat Omnibus Bills.’ Vice Media, March 12, 2015.
4. Alyssa Stryker and Carmen Cheung. ‘Six Things Protesters Need to Know about Bill C-51.’ The Tyee, March 14, 2015.
5. Russwurm, Laurel L. 'Canada is about to lose Free Speech and Civil Rights. interweb freedom, March 12, 2015.
6. Michael Geist. 'Why Anti-Terrorism Bill is Really an Anti-Privacy Bill: Bill C-51's Evisceration of Privacy Protection.' Michael Geist's Blog, March 12, 2015.
7. 101 images online by Koozma J. Tarasoff; and a shorter slide show in Google+ Story.
8. Stop C-51 - Ottawa, 94 photos by Mike Gifford, flickr.
9. 1000 Ottawa Canadians Against Harper's Draconian Bill C51, 50-minute documentary video by Dr. Qais Ghanem, Dialog with Diversity, March 16, 2015. Shows speakers Paul Champ, Yavar Hameed, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Monia Mazigh, Larry Rousseau, Jessica Squires, and Ottawa Raging Grannies singing their "Bill C-51 Song" at minute 28:55.
10. "The C-51 Picnic" by the Raging Grannies of Ottawa, 2-minute video by Jane Keeler, March 14, 2015. Lyrics for "Bill C-51 Song" by the Ottawa Raging Grannies.
11. Quaker Theatre Group Against Bill C51. 5 min. video by Dr. Qais Ghanem, Dialog with Diversity, March 20, 2015. Script below.
12. Three Traitors— a play by Carl Stieren, performed by the Quaker Theatre Team. 5-min video by Jane Keeler, March 14, 2015. Script below.
13. Script: 'Three Traitors' by Carl Stieren, Carl-Ink.com, performed by the Quaker Theatre Team in Ottawa, March 14, 2015. Vidoes above. Thanks to Carl for submitting the script and links to videos.
14. Anti-terrorism bill C-51 'dangerous' legislation, 100 academics say, CBC News, Feb 27, 2015.

Privatization Threatens Canadian Medicare

Raging Grannies

The Ontario Health Coalition held an emergency summit in Ottawa on hospital cuts and privatization on May 22, 2013. Its gravity was expressed as follows as some 70 people watched and listened:

'Ottawa is Ground Zero for hospital privatization in Ontario. The Ottawa Hospital is facing among the harshest heath service cuts of anywhere in the province. Thousands of surgeries and hospital procedures are being offloaded, cut and privatized to for-profit clinics (day hospitals). The privatization of clinical hospital care is unprecedented. It threatens the start of for-profit hospitals. It must be stopped.'

Speaker Maude Barlow of The Council of Canadians pointed out that every person has the human right for health care. She urged Canadians to fight privatization. In closing, she paid tribute to Tommy Douglas (1904-1986), the recognized father of socialized medicine in Canada who also paved the way for bargaining rights for civil servants.

Michael McBane, National Director, Canadian Health Coalition, cited peer-reviewed evidence to show how private for-profit delivery of health services is inferior to public not-for-profit delivery. The ten critical items are as follows:

1. Higher costs.
2. Higher death rates.
3. More serious deficiencies in staffing and resources.
4. Marketing of inappropriate services.
5. Conflict of financial interest.
6. Longer wait times for those who can't afford to queue jump.
7. Cherry-picking to shift cost, risk and liability to public system.
8. Opportunities for fraud.
9. Breaking the law against extra-billing and queue-jumping.
10. Opening up health care to international trade agreements.
11. For-profit health care is an attack on democracy. (Added by member in the audience) 

The last speaker, Natalie Mehra, Director, Ontario Health Coalition, explained how the proposed 2-tiered system as advocated by the provincial and federal governments is having a negative effect on many aspects of health care, such as seniors. She ended by saying: 'These are human decisions that can be changed, as Noam Chomsky used to say.'

The Ottawa Raging Grannies were on hand at the entrance to the meeting hall with singing and a sign. One of their three numbers ended with: 'Get sick, you'll make somebody richer. It's for-profit health care now!'

Another song was a challenge to the politicians

Politicians, give back our Medicare
It's time the best thing Canadians get to share!!
Just tackle the two-tier question,
It gives us indigestion.
You want our vote — just take this note:
Give back our Medicare.